Edwin Moses

Edwin Moses won the 400-meter hurdles today to give the United States its first gold medal at the World Track and Field Championships, and Jackie Joyner- Kersee missed a world record but captured the heptathlon. Moses, grimacing and tiring over the final strides, lunged across the finish line to edge Danny Harris of the United States and Harald Schmid of West Germany. Moses was clocked at 47.46 seconds, the fastest time of the year.

Edwin Moses splashed through the puddles for another victory Sunday, while Renaldo Nehemiah wound up sprawling on the rain-sodden track at the Pearl Assurance Invitation track and field meet. Moses beat his mainly British rivals by more than a second as he posted a modest 48.84 seconds for the 400-meter hurdles. Nehemiah, who like Moses, is the world record-holder for his event, ended face down on the track after hitting the seventh and eighth hurdles in the 110-meter hurdles, a race won in 13.

Edwin Moses charged past Danny Harris and won the 400-meter hurdles in 48.08 seconds in the Adriaan Paulen Memorial track and field meet Sunday. Harris finished second in 48.60, with Kevin Young third in 48.94. Moses had won 107 straight 400-meter hurdle final races in the past decade before having his streak stopped last month by Harris. In an international meet in Paris last Thursday, Moses slipped and fell at the second-to-last hurdle, and could not finish the race.

Edwin Moses fell on a rain-slickened track and lost the 400-meter hurdles for the second time in six weeks, and Said Aouita of Morocco set a world record in the 2,000-meter run Thursday at the Paris International track and field meet. Moses, who had a 107-race winning streak snapped last month in Madrid, appeared to have a solid lead but hesitated as he approached the ninth hurdle. He hit the barrier soundly, then lay on the ground while Amadou Dia Ba of Senegal won the race in 48.89 seconds.

American Danny Harris, the runner who snapped the 107-race winning streak of Edwin Moses, posted a narrow victory over Nat Page in the 400-meter hurdles of the 21st "Citta di Formia" track meet at Formia, Italy. Harris held off the late-charging Page to win in 48.91 seconds. Page was clocked in 49.02. Moses was not entered in the competition.

To hear Edwin Moses tell it after his convincing victory over Danny Harris, Saturday was just another day at the office. Maybe it was for him. After all, Moses has been through two Olympics, one World Championships and a 107-race winning streak, so what's one more national championship, especially when all it takes to win is a time of 47.99 seconds?

The streak is over. Edwin Moses savored it for more than nine years. Danny Harris, who ended it, quietly celebrated for a week and then went back to work. The reference is, of course, to Moses' incredible string of 107 victories in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles that began in September of 1977. Moses also won 15 qualifying heats without a loss during that time. Harris stopped the streak June 4 in Madrid, and he had to run the fastest race of his life, 47.56 seconds to do it.

Nine years, nine months and nine days after it began, Edwin Moses' 107-race winning streak in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles, ended June 4 in Madrid. Moses, 31, ran a respectable 47.69 but, for the first time since Aug. 26, 1977, his time was not good enough. Danny Harris, 23, of Perris, Calif., and Iowa State, won in 47.56. Moses' wife, Myrella, was at their home in Newport Beach on the day of the race, but she said she could feel the defeat coming.